
.Z)5?/ 



INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION 
AND A STATE POLICY 



AX ADDRESS BEFORE THE NATIONAL SOCIETY FOR THE PRO- 
MOTION OF INDUSTRIAL E^CATION, MILWAUKEE, DECEM- 
BER 3, 1908 BY ARTHUR D^DEAN, CHIEF. DIVISION OF TRADES 
SCHOO^, NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



ALBANY 

NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DI<:i'AKT.M KNT 

I9IO 

Ti2r-Jaio-] SCO (7-9082) 



A STATE POLICY OF PROMOTING INDUSTRIAL EDUCA- 
TION 

BY ARTHUR D. DEAN, CHIEF, DIVISION OF TRADES SCHOOLS, 
NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

Significance of industrial education 

Apart from the direct question of establishing industrial and 
trades schools, the term ''industrial education" in the minds of 
the mass of our people simply means the redirecting of our public 
schools through recognizing that they must be adapted to the needs 
of our people and that their subject-matter must be taught with 
an economic, as well as a social purpose in mind. 

Industrial education in common with all effective education should 
(i) develop out of experience; (2) this experience should have 
relation to vocations or to the pupils' part in life; and (3) every 
school should be the natural expression of the life of its community. 

Industrial education used in its broadest sense is in no way an- 
tagonistic to the general function of all education, which is to de- 
velop and train the mind ; but the mind may be trained by means 
of many subjects, and some subjects or processes are best for one 
group of persons and other processes for other groups. 

Contending points of view 

At the present time all are aroused over '' industrial education " 
and some are disturbed. Apparently there are lacking clear defi- 
nitions of the respective fields of " handwork in public schools," 
" industrial schools," " vocational schools " and ^' trades schools " ; 
there is a confusion as to its content; whether it includes agri- 
cultural, industrial and commercial training; there is a fear of 
making a beginning, forgetting that the best in our education has 
developed out of pedagogical experience and not out of mere dis- 
cussion. Questions are raised as to the relative attitudes of manu- 
facturers, labor leaders and business men ; a question whether in- 
dustrial education should be in the hands of our present state 
boards of education or regents, or in the hands of special boards 
or commissions • whether it is to be incorporated in special schools or 

D. Of 0. 

FEB 18 '^^^ 



1 Tl3 



in present existing schools ; whether trades schools are to be sup- 
\^()s, ported by funds received from regular sources or from special 
' ^5' sources ; whether they are to make things of marketable value 
and, if so, whether they shall be sold ; whether the schools shall 
cooperate with employers through some sort of a " half time '' 
arrangement, etc. Difficulties apparently present themselves in one 
hundred ways and much honest difference of opinion exists. 

Variance of opinion a necessary part of the development 

The reason for this honest variance of opinion is easily explained. 
Education is beginning to have a real meaning: it is beginning 
to teach subject-matter in terms of actual daily life and is taking 
hold of every factor that means much to the people. This is the 
first serious attempt that we have made in the history of education 
to meet, in any complete sense, pressing economic, industrial and 
social problems. We have learned that tremendous industrial forces 
have been developing with no adequate cooperation of the schools. 
When we attempt to study the significance of industry upon the 
life of our people we find that the social and economic problems 
involved are exceedingly puzzling. As soon as we begin to con- 
nect our schools with our industries and the vocations of our 
. people we are confused by the demands made upon the schools. 
However, we are committed to a democracy of education, of 
which industrial education is but one phase. 

There is no single solution 

In considering a state policy for promoting industrial educa- 
tion it is necessary to keep constantly in mind one basic principle : 
if industrial education means a redirecting and adapting of our 
education to fit the economic and social needs of our people, then 
it is a problem which has no single solution. There will be as 
many school classifications as there are groups of industries, nearly 
as many solutions as there are types of communities, and that 
there is no single inflexible course of study nor a single line of 
procedure. 

Moreover, we must remember that industrial education must 
be considered in the light of education in an industrial democracy 
— that we are endeavoring to construct an educational philosophy 
for those who work in our great constructive industries. Some 
three years ago I had about an hour's talk with John Mitchell. 
At that time he emphasized the human aspect of industrial educa- 



tion. After he was through talking I felt that the industrial needs 
of the future would require more than the exercise of hand skill. 
They would require a new understanding of obligation to work, 
to individuals and to the state. As a result of this conversation I 
offer the following : '' A thoughtful leader of working men has 
said that boys and girls need a training which will enable them to 
earn readily and honestly good wages and to spend wisely." From 
that day to this I have wanted to substitute for " industrial educa- 
tion " the broader term, " education for industrial workers." 

The New York State Education Department is committed to the 
policy of giving as much attention to the proper education of those 
who are to work in our constructive industries as is now being 
given to those who enter professional and managerial careers. 
Commissioner Draper feels that simple and balanced justice makes 
it necessary to give to the wage earning masses and to the common 
industries such equivalent as we can for what the present schools 
are doing for the wealthier classes and for the professional and 
managing vocations. 

My subject is a rather broad one. So far, in its treatment, I 
have endeavored to present a background. Now I must present 
a perspective ; for a state policy must keep in mind not only the 
means to an end, but also the end itself. With this in mind I offer 
the following propositions : 

Redirection of the elementary schools 

I That the elementary school is bound to be modified by some 
of the new external influences which will come from industrial 
education and that no real and lasting progress will be made in 
the latter until the elementary schools are redirected in the inter- 
ests of the people. These schools need education in terms of their 
environment to save themselves — of course, Trefer to agricultural 
or industrial education in its broadest and rightful sense — the 
training of a man or woman by means of agricultural or industrial 
subjects. It is not necessary to have an entirely new curriculum 
in order to redirect these schools. A portion of agricultural or 
industrial practice can be expressed in mathematical form; the 
study of history so that it takes the form of industrial and economic 
development of a nation ; geography can be taught in terms of en- 
vironment ; science in its relation to the great industrial processes 
upon which the lives of our people depend. I can conceive of an 
elementary school in which no so called agricultural courses exist,. 



yet which will still present the subject vitally from day to day by 
means of the customary studies and exercises. I would not isolate 
industry or agriculture in the elementary school from this environ- 
ment of life in order to teach it. I would teach the entire environ- 
ment. This will give the best training regardless of any future 
environment. Real and lasting progress in industrial education 
will be made only when all schools — industrial or otherwise — 
concern themselves with the needs of human life, and in so far 
as industrial education tends to vitalize by its example the whole 
school system, so will its effectiveness be beyond dispute, and no 
state policy will be complete unless it keeps this end in mind. 

Relation of industrial to other schools 

2 I wish to suggest the probable relation of schools pertaining 
to industrial education to the general public school system, as well 
as to say a word regarding the extent of the restratification which 
will be incident to their admission. We must audit our present 
courses of study ; take account of our educational stock ; label its 
cost, and selling price ; find out what it is worth ; the various de- 
mands for its different groups and the probable profit of each group 
to the state and its people. The result of the accounting will be 
that our school term will be lengthened ; the courses will be simpli- 
fied ; they will be given a more industrial and efficient trend through 
simple forms of handwork which can be done in the regular school 
rooms from the very beginning of the primary course. We will 
so advance the children that they will have at all times work which 
appeals to their needs and aptitudes and they ought to complete the 
present work of the first six grades at an earlier age than now and 
thus leave time for a more extended and more efficient school period 
than is now possible. 

The question of the relation of elementary and secondary fields 
of education will be influenced by the industrial education move- 
ment. The school system ^vill begin to separate at the end of the 
sixth or seventh grade into three very distinct branches. The 
larger part of the work of the present two upper grades will be 
uniform, but some differentiation finally looking to very complete 
separation, will begin at that time. Three distinct courses of study, 
or classes of schools, will follow the elementary school period : 
(a) the present high school system looking to entrance into col- 
lege; {b) business schools looking to work in offices, stores etc.; 
(c) industrial and agricultural schools looking to the training of 



workers in these vocations. This plan involves that pupils in the 
" (a) " division will commence some study of a modern foreign 
language if they are destined for the literary and classical high 
school; that in the " (b) " division, some special commercial studies 
will be introduced for pupils destined for advanced business schools ; 
and that in the " (c) " division, special training with tools and in 
the household and domestic arts will be offered for those who are 
to stop with the vocational school or who are to go on to the trades 
schools or agricultural high schools. This restratification will make 
it possible for pupils, teachers and parents to begin to think of the 
work that pupils are ultimately going to do, and by the time they 
are through the eighth or ninth year they will find abundant op- 
portunity and have some enthusiasm for a school which may ex- 
actly qualify them for that work, no matter whether it is pro- 
fessional or whether it is in business activities or in purely in- 
dustrial lines. 

Industrial education and compulsory attendance 

3 The raising of the compulsory school age to i6 years should 
be a part of a state policy for industrial education. All schemes 
of industrial education base their claims upon the years wastcfl 
between 14 and 16. There is little use in proposing a form of edu- 
cation necessarily expensive and complicated unless we strike at 
the root of the evil. I refer to the employment of immature chil- 
dren in our industries on lines of work which are not conducive 
to mental growth. Industrial enterprises which require intelligent 
individual effort on the part of young workers do not want the boy 
until he is 16 years of age. Unskilled industries now take him 
when he is very immature and assign him to work which lacks 
educational content. Every boy and girl up to the age of at least 
16 should be engaged in productive work profitable to the body, 
mind and soul, or else in a school which we hope may be even 
more profitable. School laws and industrial schools must work to- 
gether ; child labor laws should be so modified that they will closely 
articulate with industrial school plans. 

" Learn and earn " education 

4 Probably the most far-reaching phase of the liew movement 
will be the establishment of continuation schools. Thus far we are 
totally unprepared for this type of industrial education. Before 
we can do much in this direction laws will have to- be enacted re- 



7 

quiring employers to regulate their affairs so that their emplo}-ees 
may attend these continuation schools at least four or five hours 
a week and receive instruction in industrial or academic subjects. 
It is very easy to make such a statement as the preceding one, 
but it is going to be difficult to carry out this plan. We are ac- 
quainted with the general scheme of German continuation schools. 
But Germany is not America, and manufacturers in this country are 
apt to feel that too many laws are already in the statute books along 
lines that restrict the rights of trade. At the same time, the prob- 
lem of providing an education that will allow '' earning and learn- 
ing " will never be solved until there is some cooperation between 
a state educational policy and factory laws. Continuation schools 
will be divided into four general phases : 

a Evening schools for those who wish to supplement their daily 
experience with such academic and shop studies as will allow them 
to advance another round on the economic ladder, taking such 
courses as shop mathematics, mechanical drawing, and shop prac- 
tice. This phase of continuation school work needs no elaboration.^ 

b Day continuation schools for those in our ^inskillcd industries 
where they can receive instruction in civics, language and simple 
arithmetical processes. These courses will be for those children 
who are foreign born or who have had inferior school training, but 
need nevertheless such cultural subjects as I have suggested in 
order that the state may preserve its American citizenship. 

c Day continuation schools for those in our semiskilled iridus- 
tries requiring a higher order of intelligence or offering oppor- 
tunities for the exercises of a higher order if the young people fit 
themselves for it. Such schools will offer shop mathematics, draw- 
ing, simple courses in science. The present apprenticeship schools 
point to the industrial need and present a solution. Possibly these 
apprenticeship schools will form a part of the state policy. The 
state might well recognize the work that is being done in the ap- 
prenticeship systems in our large industrial establishments. There 
are well known advantages in the plan, but the state should have 
the same supervision of the training received in these industries 
that it now has through rules and regulations concerning hours of 
labor, infectious diseases, ventilation, dangerous machinery and child 
labor, if the private apprenticeship system is to be taken as a 
partial substitution for public industrial training. There is much 
of value in the " half time " shop-school idea but before it can have 
public indorsement through the spending of public money the state 



must be assured that the plan is so worked out that it results hi 
public industrial training and that the " half time " idea does not 
become a '' half way " scheme. So far in America it has been taken 
for granted that education was free, universal and democratic. 
If the public does not interest itself in public industrial training 
it will be left in the hands of private agencies, where it is in 
danger of selfish exploitation. I believe a state policy should be 
extremely cautious in indorsing any continuation school system 
that provides for half a day of " bookwork " in a school where 
it is under the supervision of public school authorities and at the 
same time allows a half day of shopwork in a private concern 
where the practical training is not under similar supervision. 

d I have spoken of education for industrial workers and have 
hinted that it would not be confined entirely to the teaching of in- 
dustrial subjects, neither will it be limited to mathematics, civics 
and language. It must include a still broader conception of educa- 
tional values. It will 'take into consideration the profitable spend- 
ing of the worker's hours of leisure. The deadening influence 
of w^ork on the automatic machine can not be entirely eliminated 
by such studies as I have suggested. The preservation of our 
industrial democracy requires wholesome recreation for these people. 
Public recreative centers and pubhc evening lectures will meet this 
need. Even industrial establishments have found that apprentice- 
ship systems and industrial education do not adequately meet the 
problem. Hence, they have introduced various industrial better- 
ment features. We must keep in mind the last part of the pur- 
pose of education as stated by John Mitchell, " and spend 
wisely." He meant both time and money. 

With the preceding perspective in mind we may consider the 
state policy through which these ends may be accomplished. 

Industrial education — a state policy 

I have used the term " state policy " intentionally, first, because 
the whole question of industrial education is one for a state govern- 
ment tO' consider ; it ranks with the problems of state canals, high- 
ways, forest reservations and water powers. Conservation of chil- 
dren is as important as the conservation of the state's other natural 
resources. The growing proportion of labor cost to total produc- 
tion cost makes it imperative that we study means of increasing 
the efficiency of the labor that enters into our marketable product. 

Second, because the success of maintaining industrial education 
depends upon state funds ; cities and towns will have to be en- 



couraged by liberal state support. Generally speaking no trades 
schools or agricultural schools have been successful without govern- 
ment aid. Experiences of other lands have become well known 
among our people. The equipment of these schools is expensive, 
the salaries of their teachers are higher and other expenses of main- 
tenance greater. Moreover, in many instances it is well nigh im- 
possible to educate local boards to the point where they are ready 
to expend local funds by a direct tax for the entire support of a 
system of schools which are so obviously a great factor in the 
advance of the industries of the whole state. 

Third, it should be a state policy because it is necessary to 
economize effort and properly adjust the work which various com- 
munities may contemplate. For example, the state of ]\Iassa- 
chusetts has three state textile schools with courses framed on 
similar lines. Possibly they are duplicating effort. They should 
have been planned in reference to the educational and industrial 
interests of the state and not as a " vote trading " proposition. 
Agricultural schools in some states are springing up with no central 
educational bodv responsible for them. One town desires a school. 
It may be needed, but before it can obtain the money from the 
Legislature, the members of some other district insist that their 
district should have a school as well. 

Not primarily a national government policy 

^Moreover, industrial education is primarily a state policy and 
not a United States government policy. Congress may well under- 
take new work in states for the purpose of showing the way and 
stimulating local ambition when the work is of great magnitude, 
e.g. agricultural and mechanic arts colleges. Leaders are trained 
in such institutions and after graduation their labors are not con- 
fined to the field of the state in which they were educated. In 
the case of industrial education of elementary and secondary type, 
it is quite another matter. The demand for this education should, 
and usually does, originate in the local communities, and it be- 
longs to them to carry it out, for the people participating in this 
sort of education are not trained as leaders and do not immediately 
leave their school environment. It is quite another matter for 
these communities to go beyond the commonwealth and appeal to 
Congress. National aid is not usually given without an accom- 
panying provision of some government control. The Constitution 
intended that the states should control the educational policy within 
their borders. 



lO 



Administration of these schools 

It is clear that the state should aid local schools, but whether 
these localities take up industrial education or not is often a ques- 
tion of community ability. A child ought not to be disadvantaged 
by the locality in which he lives. Ratio of population to taxable 
property differs so widely that the state must see to it that the 
educational chances are evened up. However, the state should 
not pay all the expenses of industrial education. Local enterprise 
and responsibility should be developed. Industrial, trade and agri- 
cultural schools must be close to the people. Educational democracy 
can not be realized if our people are required to attend schools 
at a great distance, where there is the expense of board and rooms, 
individual loss to pupils of home influences and loss to parents 
of sundry help which children often contribute outside of school 
hours. Moreover, the class of children which will enter these 
schools can not afford to go away to school and it is not best that 
they should. 

State and local control 

The control of industrial and agricultural education should be 
in the hands of existing state boards of education. If these boards 
are not capable of administering such education they should be 
strengthened by either the addition of an advisory board or by a 
reorganization of the present board. I believe it is a serious mis- 
take to commit the organization and administration of industrial 
schools to a special commission and not tO' the public school au- 
thorities of the state, and the subdivisions thereof. For any prog- 
ress, a special commission is obliged to rely on local advocates and 
on local school committees ; and it is needless to create an expensive 
commission for the purpose of accomplishing that which we have 
every reason for assuming can be accomplished without additional 
state machinery. 

Local management 

Moreover, it is inconsistent with our accepted theories of state 
and local government, to prohibit to the various communities of 
the state the same reasonable control over industrial schools which 
they tax themselves to support, as they exercise over their other 
educational drpartments. Industrial education should be kept as 
much as posfille in the hands of local control and management, for 
otherwise there will be an implied reflection that local ]:>oards are 



II 

not capable of managing educational affairs. Oftentimes, under 
special encouragement by the state and with the cooperation of local 
boards it will be possible to adapt existing buildings to industrial 
school purposes and thus avoid duplication of plants such as would 
exist if two state or local boards existed. 

Shall industrial schools be separate? 

The next important question to consider is whether industrial 
schools should be separated from schools devoted to " general train- 
ing." There is a tendency to divorce the two, and in this way the 
establishment of separate schools of agriculture and industry is 
repeating for the schools of lower grade that which has been the 
history of the development of the agricultural and mechanic arts 
colleges. The Land Grant Act of 1862 established the latter col- 
leges. The new education resulting was so unlike the old educa- 
tion in spirit that new colleges were established independently of 
the old. You remember how, in some instances, the new was made 
a department of the old institution. It did not thrive, the se,pa- 
rate college being free to do as it chose. However, this has changed, 
and the separate agricultural college no longer holds the leader- 
ship (illustration: Universities of Wisconsin and Illinois). These 
institutions have found that education that makes use of agricul- 
tural and industrial subjects is education just as much as that 
which was given under the terms of mathematics and philosophy. 
In fact, the newer education has made the state universities. How- 
ever, it is to be noticed that the agricultural colleges and schools 
connected with the universities are really schools within a school, 
each with its own dean, course of study, tradition and ultimate 
purpose. 

Significantly, the recent movement for industrial and agricul- 
tural education has started out to repeat educational history. We 
are attempting to isolate this latest educational movement by or- 
ganizing separate classes or schools. Personally, I most de- 
cidedly advocate special or distinct schools until we get our bear- 
ings, courses of study, our data, our textbooks, and some tradi- 
tions worthy of preservation ; but eventually much that there is in 
these schools must go into the regular schools. These new separate 
schools are going to be popular ; they will be useful and significant ; 
more than most schools, they will teach the essentials. ]\Iore of 
these schools will be demanded. It is easy to see the ultimate re- 
sult. If the common schools do not redirect themselves they are 
lost. It would be a mistake to forever forbid a union of the old 



12 

type with the new. On the other hand, to attempt to incorporate 
it in a school that has traditions which will dominate is to defeat 
a plan of '' education for industrial workers " which has been 
defeated already twice in the educational history of the past 50 
years — once when the agricultural and mechanic arts colleges 
were established, and again when the " manual arts " were intro- 
duced. Possibly the times were not ripe. I believe they are today. 
Industrial education must make its own traditions by creating a 
machinery that will do it. 

Methods of procedure — agricultural communities 

1 The question of consolidation of rural schools must be con- 
sidered as well as a more rigid system of grading. There is a 
difference of opinion regarding consolidation. However, the right 
sort of elementary education for rural schools can be given in any 
rural school in which there is a live teacher who is paid a good 
salary and who will vitalize the so called " bookwork," teaching 
it in relation to its agricultural environment. Possibly the needs 
of secondary agricultural education can not be met unless there 
is consolidation ; for the tools, apparatus, trained teachers and 
buildings necessary to the purpose will make a formidable demand 
upon local school funds ; but this subject need not be discussed 
here, as much has been written on it before. 

2 The architecture of rural school buildings must be decidedly 
modified. Every country high school should have an addition for 
a museurri, a small shop and a cooking laboratory. Even some of 
the rural elementary school buildings might be similarly modified. 
Doubtless you all know of the model school building which is on 
the campus of Cornell University. 

3 The rural school should make a more extended use of nature 
as a laboratory. The school garden and Arbor day idea can find 
its full expression in the open country. 

4 There must be a close cooperation with the home for work in 
mechanic arts, agriculture and cooking. It is a mistake to extend 
to the rural school the same industrial work which is practical 
and desirable in the city schools. Boys in the open country might 
well learn how to set window glass, to mix paint and whitewash, 
to temper and repair farm tools, to sharpen saws, to make chicken 
coops, brooders, model gates and fences. Viewed in its proper 
light and in the sense of relationship of education to environment, 
the rural school gives better opportunity for manual training, house- 
hold arts and domestic science training than the city school. 



13 

5 There must be the closest of cooperation between the schools 
of the opefi country and the state agricultural college. The educa- 
tional content of the scientific laboratory , must be revamped and 
adapted to the people that desire to use it. 

6 The body of knowledge concerning scientific agriculture must 
in some way reach the people, through bulletins, institutes and 
granges. I commend to your consideration the farmers institute 
work of the New York State Education Department and the De- 
partment of Agriculture. 

Methods of procedure — industrial communities 

1 That all pupils should have successfully completed at least 
six years of elementary school work before entering upon indus- 
trial training, during which time they should have had some form 
of handwork for one hour a day. In the first six grades these 
children should have learned so called " fundamentals " — how to 
read and write intelligently ; how to compute simple problems in 
arithmetic ; they should know something of the geography of the 
world and something of the history of their country. It is not 
necessary to discuss whether the handwork in the first six years 
is to be industrial education ; it is an essential part of all educa- 
tion and has its own peculiar value in even an industrial sense. 

2 Industrial training should begin (i) after the ordinary school 
arts, like reading, spelling, writing, drawing, arithmetic and gram- 
mar and the rudiments of history, geography and nature study 
are fairly completed, and (2) as soon as the muscles are strong 
enough to handle the lighter tools of industry safely and are suf- 
ficiently developed for the acquisition of skill in their use. Under 
ordinary conditions the vocational schools should be open to chil- 
dren who are 13 or 14 years of age. 

3 There should be industrial or vocational schools for boys and 
girls who have completed these grades, and trades schools for 
pupils who have reached the age of 16 years, the first type giving 
a better elementary school provision for the vocational needs of 
those likely to enter industrial pursuits; the second type offering 
special shop, laboratory and drawing room practice along a chosen 
trade pursuit. 

Intermediate industrial education 
This form of vocational training is primarily for pupils 13 to 16 
years of age in the fields of trades and manufacturing industries 
and does not assume to give complete trade training. It must. 



14 

from the standpoint of greatest advantage both to the individual 
and the community, train for practical work and at the same time 
secure an adequate training of the mind. Its course of study 
should extend from two to four years. The latter period is pre- 
ferable for two reasons — first, because this length of time is neces- 
sary to produce the requisite mental and physical training for a 
life of progression and industrial efficiency, and second, because 
it enables a school to attract and hold the students when their 
growing power is greatest and their earning power least. 

Trades schools 

Eventually definite trade training for pupils who have chosen a 
trade must be carried on in every section of the state where there 
is a demand for such training. This training should be open to 
pupils who are i6 years of age. There will be many types of these 
schools — monotechnic and polytechnic, fitting in with every in- 
dustry. We must remember that the pupils enter these trades 
schools with a definite purpose of proficiency in one trade; that 
such a school absolutely abandons all college preparatory work; 
that there is almost no instruction in pure mathematics or pure 
science ; that such schools will take on varying forms in different 
localities. The right sort of industrial work must depend upon the 
local environment, for two reasons: (i) It is the best education 
because it gives definite opportunity of studying some typical in- 
dustries at close range; (2) it is better to prepare our youth for 
obtaining a position after graduation in his home community so 
that he may be under parental guidance for a few years after leav- 
ing the trades school. The trades schools will not parallel with 
our existing high schools but they will make a more or less direct 
connection with the intermediate industrial schools. The closer 
their connection is with such preliminary training, the more closely 
the trades school can have highly specialized courses, with their 
instruction concentrating for the development of skill and knowl- 
edge of direct practical bearing. 

4 That no single course of study for either the intermediate in- 
dustrial school or the trades school can be outlined. No method 
of procedure is as important as this. Just because a city has large 
textile interests is no reason why it should have a school identical 
with a textile school in another city. For example, a study of 
the needs of a textile industry and its workers reveals the fact 
that one city makes a specialty of knit goods, another of woolen 



15 

goods, another of cotton goods, and that the course of study in 
these cities must vary. 

5 Local advisory boards should be appointed to assist the ad- 
ministration of these schools. Such boards will serve a double 
purpose : ( i ) Establishing in a community a confidence in the 
technical work done in the school; (2) reinforcing the school 
board in its appeal for financial support before city governments. 

6 The question of the relationship of industrial education to 
trade unions is important. The state can develop a plan of pro- 
cedure which will meet with the cooperation of employer and em- 
ployee — of capitalist and of organized labor. These people will not 
deny the utmost opportunity to their own children if they have 
confidence that what is being done is free from selfish exploitation 
and rests upon a truthful educational footing and is guided by the 
common advantage of all the interests concerned. 

7 There must be new textbooks relating to industrial subjects. 
I believe it would be a mistake for the state to undertake their 
preparation and publication. Textbooks are badly needed but be- 
yond outlines and syllabuses, the state should be exceedingly 
cautious and reluctant to make a departure so radical as the pub- 
lication of state textbooks. 

8 The question of the disposition of the product of trades schools 
will be raised. Here again the procedure will depend upon the 
industry represented and the sentiments of the community. We 
must keep in mind that we are making efficient workmen and not 
making products. If a finished product has to follow because of 
our ideal of a finished boy, then it may be a wise and necessary 
procedure .to make such products, but common sense and public 
opinion will govern the local situation. 

9 The obtaining of suitable teachers for these schools opens up 
a large question. Our normal schools have been organized on the 
basis that they were primiarily intended for the training of teachers 
for the elementary schools. Some have special departments in 
which special training is given so as to qualify its graduates to 
teach school gardening, drawing, cooking and shopwork. The 
technical and industrial requirements of our industrial and trades 
schools are such that teachers must be very practical in their 
methods. It will be impossible for an average normal school to fit 
its students for teaching positions in the industrial and trades 
schools unless the students have had shop experience before enter- 
ing the school or obtain such experience after graduation. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



I 6 nilllllll III Hill mil mil mil mil Hill mil mil Hilling 

029 996 199 • 

In conclusion, I believe that the industrial and agricultural 
schools should be of every kind for which there is a demand on 
the part of the people. The system must necessarily be exceed- 
ingly flexible. The schools should be taught by workmen who can 
teach, rather than by teachers who have theories about work. The 
instruction should be " shoppish " rather than " bookish/' altliougli 
of course bookwork is always desirable. We are in the midst of 
a great task; we are working out the basis and the details of the 
greatest industrial democracy in human history. In the discussion 
of industrial education let us lose nol!.ing of our good humor. T^et 
us think straight, with an open mind and come to common conclu- 
sions. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRES'E 



029 996 199 



